Two aspects of Arsenal’s play have been key to the way they build attacks in recent seasons. One is their ball speed, the other is how ‘vertical’ they are.

In essence, these relate to the tempo at which they move the ball and then how quickly they can get it forward. Arsenal becoming ‘more vertical’ was key to their development last season, as they found more ways to progress up the pitch. And in the current one, manager Mikel Arteta has highlighted their lack of ‘ball speed’ as a reason for failing to generate “enough threat” in matches that have cost them points.

Asked about the importance of these themes ahead of this past weekend’s north London derby, Arteta said: “It depends on the moments of the phase of play and how the opponents behave. It’s all about that. It’s all about what the opponent is trying to do. How you can hurt them? Identifying their weaknesses and identifying those moments to hurt them.

“We try to prepare a game. There are a lot of concepts around any way of playing and for us these two are important, but there are many others.”

When the opponents are Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal have a clear plan. They figured out how to hurt their neighbours and biggest rivals a while back, and Bukayo Saka tends to be their weapon of choice.

The 22-year-old scored his 15th league goal of the season, his best tally for a single campaign, to make it 2-0 on Sunday but that was not the only significant aspect of his finish. It was the latest in a string of very similar moves he has been involved in to hurt Spurs over the past three seasons, dating back to September 2021.

In reverse order, we look at how Arsenal have used Saka to be a constant thorn in Tottenham’s side, helping them win four of the past six meetings between the two clubs. When Arteta says “it’s all about the moments of the phase of play”, a pattern has emerged over the past three years.

Compared to matches where Arsenal are expected to settle on the ball and probe for an opening, the north London derby regularly lends itself to a more transitional style of football.

Since the start of the 2021-22 season, they have scored more goals from fast breaks against Spurs than any other Premier League club they have faced (three). For context, just three teams have more against any opponents during this period – Tottenham against Leicester City, Liverpool against Everton and Liverpool against Manchester United (all with four).

Saka’s most recent north London derby goal showed it is something that is happening by design in these matches.

As shown below, he takes charge when the ball breaks to him. The England international finds Kai Havertz, then immediately darts towards Arsenal’s right wing while every Tottenham player ball-watches.

Recognising the situation, he calls for the pass way before Havertz is ready to play it but the German does soon float the required ball in behind. Saka then has the technique to bring it down with a feather-like touch, use Spurs defender Ben Davies to create space for himself and send a shot into the far corner.

From start to finish, it is a goal that displays Saka’s maturity. He benefited from a similar situation in the 2-2 home draw with Tottenham earlier this season.

On that occasion, Oleksandr Zinchenko tackles Dejan Kulusevski and takes charge of the situation. He drives up the Arsenal left before finding Martin Odegaard in a massive pocket of space – another theme for these goals – before the Norwegian moves the ball on to Saka.

Luck was involved with this goal, as Cristian Romero’s block sends the shot goalwards, but Saka has been making his own luck in these matches of late.

On Sunday, Tottenham became the first team in the Premier League to score an own goal in three consecutive games against Arsenal and all three have come from a Saka involvement. Arsenal’s No.7 did not score against Spurs last season, but his exploitation of space was still vital.

This was particularly the case in the January when Arsenal secured their first away league win against Tottenham in nine years. He was found near the corner flag and saw his subsequent cross diverted in by goalkeeper Hugo Lloris for the opener in the 2-0 victory, but it was their other goal that evening that was closer to the ‘usual’.

Again, the move begins with a loose-ball situation. William Saliba beats Harry Kane to a header and Thomas Partey produces two excellent touches to take three players out of the game and find Saka in space. As he advances, Odegaard is in an almost identical space to the one shown above and screams for the ball. Saka plays it to him, Odegaard takes one touch to set himself and then finishes into the bottom corner.

Saka also played a part in Arsenal’s second goal in the 3-1 home derby win earlier that season. His shot was fumbled into Gabriel Jesus’ path by Lloris, but the winger had a lot less space to operate in. This was the first season where Saka hit double figures for goals, and coincidentally it all started when Arsenal welcomed Spurs to the Emirates in the September.

Saka had featured in all of the club’s first five games but was yet to score or assist after helping England reach the European Championship final over the summer. Arsenal had lost their opening three matches but were limping back into form with 1-0 wins over Norwich City and Burnley respectively. Spurs were the reverse, winning their first three, but losing their next two.

This was the game that truly kickstarted Arsenal’s season, and it took 12 minutes for them to hit their visitors with one of the moves that has now become very familiar.

As in the previous example, an Arsenal centreback (Ben White) wins a duel and the midfield pick up the loose ball. Odegaard drives forward into that central space yet again before moving the ball right to Saka, who has more space because of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s run in behind. This time, he stands up his defender and goes on the outside before cutting back for Emile Smith Rowe to put Arsenal ahead.

The winger then scored Arsenal’s final goal of a 3-1 victory on 34 minutes.

Like Saka this weekend, Odegaard is the player taking charge of a loose ball and playing it to a team-mate on the left. Here it is Smith Rowe instead of Havertz, quickly getting the ball out of his feet before launching it into a very similar space to the one the German did on Sunday for Saka to chase. Saka tries to find Aubameyang in space on the left, but Kane’s block runs back to him to finish.

It may have been fortuitous but that goal helped change things for Saka and Arsenal. Individually, he finished that season with 11 league goals. He followed that up with 14 of them in 2022-23 and is on 15 with three games left to play in 2023-24. Alongside the three own goals he has forced against Tottenham, he has scored three, assisted two and played a part in one more (for Jesus).

From a collective standpoint, Arsenal’s trajectory has been on an incline since that day in September 2021.

Their football has become more considered on the whole, but north London derbies still tend to get stretched more than any other game. That is why consistently being dominant in duels, alert in broken play and having Saka in space allows them to reap the rewards.